The most outstanding engineering structures in the world. The most grandiose buildings in the world

Do you think it’s only in our country that they build grandiosely and expensively, and then they don’t know what to adapt for?
Where there!
There are also North Korea, Canada, Côte d'Ivoire, Spain, Greece, Romania with their examples of multibillions buried in the ground and poured into concrete.
Here are just a few expensive and in many ways unique construction projects, whose content flies a pretty penny to the owners, but neither the creators nor the visitors need them.

Mirabel airport
Montreal, Canada
Plans for a new airport for Canada's second largest city, Montreal, were first made public in 1967. And they amazed the imagination: the largest area in the world (40,000 hectares), passenger traffic up to 50 million people a year (this is the approximate total passenger traffic of Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo, taken together for 2016), its own high-speed railway line, monorail, highway, a hotel complex, six terminals, six runways, including runways for receiving supersonic airliners, and so on.
The first stage of the airport was put into operation in 1975, but the plans of its creators did not come true. Erroneous planning of traffic flows, the decrease in the attractiveness of Montreal as an economic center, a change in the policy of the government of Quebec and other factors led to the fact that even 3 million passengers did not pass through Mirabel during its entire existence.
In 2004, due to unprofitability, the airport stopped serving regular commercial flights, turning into a cargo air harbor. Races began to be held on the vast runways, and films were made in the terminal building. And in 2014, they decided to demolish the terminal building, because it was too expensive to operate and no one really needed it. The construction of Mirabell Airport was recognized as a mistake, and the honorary title of "white elephant" was awarded to it in the first decade of its existence. This is often the case with airports. Thus, the new main Berlin air harbor - Willy Brandt Berlin-Brandenburg Airport - was planned to be opened back in 2011, but it still does not accept either planes or passengers due to errors in the project.

Basilica of Notre Dame de la Paix
Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast
In 1983, the permanent president of Côte d'Ivoire, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who by that time had ruled this small African country for almost a quarter of a century, decided to move the capital from the large developed seaside city of Abidjan inland, namely to the village of Yamoussoukro - there, where the politician was born and raised.
Two years later, Houphouet-Boigny laid the foundation stone for the largest church in the world, Notre Dame de la Paix, or Our Lady of Peace. Construction was carried out for four years and cost the country's budget, according to various estimates, in the amount of 175 to 600 million dollars. And this is not surprising: hundreds of tons of marble were brought from Italy, stained-glass windows from France, the building turned out to be 30 thousand square meters in area. m and a height of 158 meters (higher than St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, although Notre Dame de la Paix accommodates about 18 thousand people, which is three times less than the same St. Peter's Cathedral). On the square paved with granite and marble in front of the basilica, another 200 thousand people can fit, that is, approximately the entire population of Yamoussoukro, of which 19% are Catholics.
By the way, about the population: about 42% of the population of Côte d'Ivoire lives below the poverty line, that is, on less than $1.25 a day. Services in the basilica gather today, at best, hundreds of people.

Ryugyong Hotel
Pyongyang, North Korea
In 1987, the North Korean government, led by President Kim Il Sung, announced the start of construction of the tallest building in the country, the 105-story, 330-meter Ryugyong Hotel with 3,000 (according to other sources, 7,700) rooms and revolving restaurants at the top.
The construction of the hotel was planned to be completed by the 1989 World Festival of Youth and Students, however, due to problems with materials, the main structures were completed only by 1992, after which work stopped altogether for almost a decade and a half due to the economic crisis, and the skeleton of Ryugen became symbol of Pyongyang.
Construction resumed in 2008, and over the next three years, the concrete structure was covered with glass, the new opening date was 2013, and the first photos of the interiors of the future hotel appeared on the Web. The opening, however, has not taken place to this day, and experts around the world doubt that North Korea is even capable of completing construction and that the building is usable. It is noteworthy that the tallest London skyscraper, The Shard, which has a similar shape, is also half empty - buyers are in no hurry to purchase apartments worth 30-50 million pounds.

South China New Mall Shopping Mall
Dongguan, PRC
In 2005, the New South China Mall, a five-story shopping mall, was opened in a poor suburb of Dongguan, with a population of 6 million, the largest in the world. The construction cost exceeded $1.3 billion. The scope is grandiose even by Chinese standards: up to 2350 retail outlets with a total area of ​​660 thousand square meters. m (plus another 232 thousand square meters of other premises), a 25-meter model of the Parisian Arc de Triomphe, canals with gondolas, roller coasters and other entertainment - and no visitors.
In the first years after the opening, tenants occupied only 1% of the center's area. Ten years later, this figure increased tenfold, but even today the complex is mostly empty. The reason is that the local population does not earn enough to make the complex attractive to sellers, and the hopes of developers that the people of Dongguan will get rich have not materialized.

City of Galician culture
Santiago de Compostela, Spain
At the beginning of 1999, the Parliament of Galicia announced that the project of the Cidade da Cultura de Galicia was won by the work of the architect Peter Eisenman: the buildings on the hill of Monte Gaias, as if squeezed out of the ground and reminiscent of cobblestones and shells of mollusks at the same time, should concert halls, galleries, museums, a library and an archive were sheltered.
Construction lasted more than ten years, cost at least twice as much as planned (Eisenman indicated the figure of 400 million euros in the project) and was finally stopped by the decision of the regional government. Two of the six buildings remained unfinished, and most importantly, the vast complex did not attract the expected number of tourists and local residents, while its maintenance is very expensive for the local budget.

Clem Jones Tunnel
Brisbane, Australia
At the beginning of this century, the Australian government of Brisbane conceived the idea of ​​building a series of tunnels to ease traffic in the city and reduce travel time from one end of the city to the other. One of these tunnels was the 4.8-kilometer Clem Jones, which runs under the bottom of the Brisbane River.
In 2005, when construction began, the tunnel was supposed to be the longest tunnel in Australia. Its construction cost 3.2 billion Australian dollars (approximately 2.5 billion US dollars) and was not an easy task: the builders had to make their way through a very hard rock - Brisbane tuff, for which they used the largest roadheaders in the world at that time, costing 50 million Australian dollars each.
Eventually the tunnel and access roads were opened on February 28, 2010 with a large gathering of people. But it soon became clear that citizens use the tunnel much less frequently than the city council had planned: for example, officials expected that 60,000 cars would pass through the tunnel daily, but in reality, about 20,000 drivers use it every day, and besides, it saves only eight minutes on the road and unloads other highways of the city by only 5-10%. The passage through the tunnel is paid, but even discounts and a radical price reduction (to the detriment of the project's payback) do not help increase the attractiveness of the structure among city residents. The operator's losses in 2010 amounted to A$1.6 billion.

Objects of the 2004 Olympics
Athens and surroundings, Greece
The Greek capital has been fighting for the right to host the Summer Olympics since the early 1990s and, having lost the 1996 Anniversary Games to the American Atlanta, it finally got the right to host the 2004 Olympics. Preparations for the Games - the construction of sports and transport facilities, the Olympic Village - cost the country's government 9 billion euros. And although officials recognized the Games as profitable, the costs only exacerbated the severe debt crisis that began three years after their completion.
At the same time, the cost of maintaining sports facilities in good condition was estimated at 500 million euros annually, and these facilities themselves turned out to be useless. So, the center for rowing competitions has turned into a fetid swamp and a place of comfortable living for hordes of mosquitoes, the shooting stadium is overgrown, and the Olympic village is gradually being destroyed. Interestingly, the same is happening with the Olympic venues in Rio de Janeiro and Beijing, as well as with sports facilities built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Palace of Parliament
Bucharest, Romania
This is the heaviest and largest administrative building in the world, ordered to be built by Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu in 1984. For the construction of the Palace of the Parliament, the builders demolished a fifth of Old Bucharest, dug out the top of Spiriy Hill, used 1 million tons of marble, 3.5 thousand tons of crystal, 700 thousand tons of steel and bronze, 900 thousand cubic meters of wood and 200 thousand square meters. meters of carpets. By the time of Ceausescu's execution in 1989, the 12-storey building, 86 meters high (not counting the 92 meters deep underground rooms), was largely finished, although with the fall of communism in Romania, work ceased. Some parts of the building have not been completed yet.
Now in the premises of the palace with a total area of ​​365 thousand square meters. meters (this is about one and a half Red Squares in Moscow) both houses of the Romanian Parliament, three museums and a conference center are located. Together they occupy about 30% of the palace. The cost of the construction is estimated at 3 billion euros, while its lighting and heating costs about 6 million euros annually - about the amount spent per year for the same needs by a medium-sized Romanian city.


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Some of the most beautiful buildings in the world fascinate and captivate with their intricate shapes and configurations. Undoubtedly, these architectural structures deserve the highest praise and special attention. Let's dwell on the 25 most outstanding, built in various parts of the globe.

Burj Al Arab Hotel - Dubai

Burj Al Arab is considered the tallest hotel in the world. This 7-star 60-story building is built on a private artificial island on Jumeirah Beach. The hotel is built in the form of a sailboat, it is located at an altitude of 321 m above sea level.

Inside the building, there is a stunning design: many dancing fountains, huge aquariums, luxurious apartments with gilded decoration.

Catherine Palace - St. Petersburg

In the city of Pushkin near St. Petersburg, there is another beautiful building with a bright blue facade: the baroque palace of Catherine the Great. Crowds of tourists visit this magnificent structure to admire it, as well as the famous Amber Room, one of the wonders of the world. Particularly impressive is the graceful wing of the palace in the classical style, which was designed by the architect of Catherine II - Charles Cameron.

Guggenheim Museum - Bilbao, Spain

American architect Frank Gehry designed the Guggenheim Museum, which is located in Spain. The most innovative ideas of architecture of the 20th century intertwined in the bold contours of the building. The building, with an area of ​​24 thousand m2, is a landmark with an innovative design. The museum has radically changed the view of modern architecture. During the construction of the building, titanium was used with lines that change color in the sun.

Great Mosque - Djenne, Mali

South of the Sahara is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world - a mosque built by African tribes from clay bricks. The architectural complex was built in 1906 and is the largest structure in the world that is built entirely of mud. In 1988, the mosque was included in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List.

Sagrada Familia - Barcelona, ​​Spain

One of the main attractions of Spain, the symbol of Barcelona is Sagrada Familia or Sagrada Familia, which was designed by Antoni Gaudí. The architect spent 40 years building this Gothic cathedral. After the death of Gaudi, his associates continued to build the temple, it is worth noting that work continues to this day. According to the project, the completion of the construction of the church is expected in 2026.

Taj Mahal, India

This majestic building is located in India, on the southern bank of the Yamuna River. The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum complex that took 20 years to build. In its construction, white marble was used, which changes color depending on the sunlight or moonlight. The building was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1983. The Taj Mahal is considered to be one of the most magnificent buildings in the world.

Wat Rong Khun - Thailand

Wat Rong Khun or "White Temple" is one of the most famous temples in Thailand. The uniqueness of the building is that it stands out for its crystal whiteness and sparkles in the sun. The temple was designed by a famous Thai artist. The building is yet to be improved. It is assumed that there will be nine buildings with halls for relics, meditation and living quarters for the monks.

Sheikh Zayed Mosque - UAE

One of the largest mosques in the world, the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi is built of marble and can accommodate 40,000 people. The building was completed in 2007. White marble, brought from 28 countries of the world, was used in its construction. In the main hall there is a huge lamp weighing 9 tons, decorated with Swarovski crystals.

Church of the Savior on Blood - Russia

The Church of the Savior on Blood is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world and is located in St. Petersburg. The impressive church began to be built in 1883. The majestic building is decorated with colorful towers, interiors with mosaics and unique exterior decoration.

Golden Temple - Amritsar, India

The Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib) is a stunning building in India, erected in the middle of a lake. The building was destroyed and rebuilt several times. The style of the temple features Hindu and Muslim architecture, which is enhanced by the reflection in the water. It is believed that the building is a holy place and, being here, one must pray.

Shanghai Tower - China

The Shanghai Tower is one of the tallest and most beautiful buildings in the country. It surpasses in height even such buildings as the Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center. The height of the building is about 650 meters, and the total area is 380 thousand square meters.

World Trade Center 1 or "Freedom Tower" - New York, USA

The "Freedom Tower" in New York is the centerpiece of the World Trade Center in Manhattan. It was built on the site of the twin towers destroyed in the terrorist attack. The tower is the tallest building in the US.

Lotus Temple - Delhi, India

The Lotus Temple in New Delhi is one of the most beautiful temples in India. Designed by Iranian architect Fariborz Sahba. Previously, on the site of the building there was a mystical settlement of Baha Pur - "Bach's Dwelling". The second name of the Bahai temple is Lotus - the Mother of all temples on the Hindustan peninsula. Its magnificence has earned it many awards in architecture.

Grand Lisboa Casino Hotel - China

The Grand Lisboa was designed by renowned Hong Kong architects Dennis Lau and Ng Chun Meng. This impressive skyscraper with a height of 260 meters has 58 floors! Gaming establishments in the building began their work in February 2007. The entire surface of the hotel-casino is a screen of complex configuration. This solution is considered innovative.

Cathedral Mosque of Cordoba - Spain

The Cathedral Mosque of Cordoba in Spain is decorated with intricate patterns, mosaic ornaments and openwork columns. A few centuries ago, an ancient Roman temple stood on this site, then a Visigothic church, and in 785 Mesquita appeared. The pilgrimage to Cordoba was even equated with the obligatory hajj for every Muslim to Mecca.

St. Peter's Basilica - Vatican City, Italy

St. Peter's Basilica - one of the main attractions of the Vatican - is rightfully considered the heart of the Vatican and the entire Catholic world. From a bird's eye view, stunning views of ancient Rome open up, and from the top of the dome you can admire the interior of the cathedral.

Bayon Temple Complex - Siem Reap, Cambodia

Bayon is one of the most amazing temples located on the territory of Angkor Thom and was its religious center. The “highlight” of Bayon is the towers with many faces carved from stone, silently looking from a height on the vast territory of Angkor Thom, and in the heyday of the state - on the entire Khmer Empire. Initially, there were 54 towers, which symbolized the 54 provinces under the rule of the king. Today, only about 37 towers have survived.

Shwedagon Pagoda - Yangon, Myanmar

One of the most majestic and spiritual buildings in Myanmar is the Shwedagon Pagoda. The entire complex is located on an area of ​​more than five hectares. In addition to the main building, there are many sculptural images of mythical and real animals around it: golden griffins, elephants, dragons and lions.

Australian War Memorial - Canberra

The Australian War Memorial is the main memorial dedicated to the memory of soldiers who died during the First and Second World Wars. Today it is considered one of the most significant monuments of its kind in the world. The memorial is located near the Parliament building, from the balcony of which a panoramic view of the monument opens.

Mall - Las Vegas, USA

The Fashion Show Mall is the only large mall of its kind in Las Vegas. On the territory of the building there are 250 boutiques, shops and six department stores of famous brands. The center opened in 1981, over the years it has grown to 175 thousand square meters. There is also a huge hall for fashion shows.

Music Building - China

This creative building called Piano House was built in China according to the project of architecture students. The building consists of two parts depicting two instruments - a transparent violin resting on a translucent piano.

The original building was built for music lovers, but it has nothing to do with music. There is an escalator in the violin, and an exhibition complex in the piano.

Siena Cathedral - Italy

According to the legend of the chroniclers, at the beginning of the 13th century, the inhabitants of the city-state of Siena, which acted as the main rival and opponent of Florence, “called on their leaders to build a temple more magnificent than that of their neighbors.” Thus, in the period from 1215 to 1263, the Duomo of Siena was founded on the site of the old temple according to the plan of the Gothic master Niccolò Pisano. Today this majestic temple is the main attraction of the city.

Milan Cathedral (Duomo) - Milan, Italy

One of the significant places in Milan is the Gothic Cathedral of Santa Maria Nashente (Duomo), which was built from 1386 to the beginning of the 19th century. The attraction is the third largest Catholic church, which is even considered one of the wonders of the world. Its hundred-meter spiers rise above the center of Milan, and the golden statue of the Madonna on the longest spire (four meters high) is visible from many parts of the city.

Sydney Opera House - Australia

The Sydney Opera House is one of the most recognizable buildings in the world. Its architect was the Dane Jorn Utzon. Having designed the original roofs, somewhat reminiscent of shells, he made Sydney a magnificent gift - a symbol of the city. Today, every tourist, planning to visit Australia, must include an excursion to the majestic opera house in the program of his trip.

Angkor Wat - Siem Reap, Cambodia

The Cambodian temple of Angkor Wat is one of the largest places of worship ever built. It was built almost 9 centuries ago. It is located on an area of ​​200 hectares and is surrounded by a moat 190 meters wide. A temple was built in honor of the god Vishnu, who is revered in this area.

This article contains 20 engineering wonders of the world.

The Large Hadron Collider, abbreviated TANK(English) Large Hadron Collider, abbreviated LHC) is an accelerator of charged particles in colliding beams, designed to accelerate protons and heavy ions (lead ions) and study the products of their collisions. The collider was built in CERN e (European Council for Nuclear Research), located near Geneva, on the border of Switzerland and France. TANK is the largest experimental facility in the world. More than 10,000 scientists and engineers from more than 100 countries have participated and are participating in construction and research.

It is named large because of its size: the length of the main ring of the accelerator is 26,659 m; hadronic - due to the fact that it accelerates hadrons, that is, heavy particles consisting of quarks; collider (English collider - collider) - due to the fact that particle beams are accelerated in opposite directions and collide at special collision points.

Abbr. ISS(English) International Space Station, abbr. ISS) is a manned orbital station used as a multi-purpose space research complex. ISS is a joint international project involving 15 countries (in alphabetical order): Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, USA, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Japan.

Control ISS carried out: by the Russian segment - from the Space Flight Control Center in Korolev, by the American segment - from the Mission Control Center in Houston. There is a daily exchange of information between the Centers.

three gorges- the world's largest operating hydroelectric power plant, built in China on the Yangtze River, the third longest river in the world. Located near Sandouping City in Yichang City, Hubei Province. The world's largest power plant in terms of installed capacity. The gravity concrete dam of this reservoir is one of the largest in the world. When the reservoir was filled, 1.3 million people were resettled.

Petronas- 88-storey skyscraper. Height - 451.9 meters. Located in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur. The Prime Minister of Malaysia participated in the design of the skyscraper Mahathir Mohamad , who proposed to build buildings in the "Islamic" style. Therefore, in terms of the complex, it consists of two eight-pointed stars, and the architect added semicircular ledges for stability.

6 years were allotted for construction (1992-1998). The towers were built by two different companies to create competition and increase productivity. In the course of geological surveys, it turned out that the proposed site for construction is located in one part on the edge of the rock, and the other on soft limestone. After the construction of such heavy towers in this place, one of them would inevitably sink. As a result, the buildings were completely transferred to soft ground, shifted by 60 meters, and piles were driven to a depth of more than 100 meters. It is currently the largest concrete foundation in the world.

It differs not only in its colossal size, but also in the complexity of its design. The area of ​​all premises of the building is 213,750 m2, which corresponds to the area of ​​48 football fields. The towers themselves occupy 40 hectares in the city. The Petronas Towers houses offices, exhibition and conference rooms, and an art gallery.

Space X-ray Observatory "Chandra"(space telescope "Chandra", English Chandra) is a space observatory launched NASA July 23, 1999 (via shuttle "Colombia") for space exploration in the X-ray range. Named after an American physicist and astrophysicist of Indian origin Chandrasekara , who taught at the University of Chicago from 1937 until his death in 1995 and was best known for his work on white dwarfs.

Chandra- the third observatory of the four launched NASA at the end of the 20th beginning of the 21st century. The telescope was first Hubble, second Compton and fourth Spitzer.

The observatory was conceived and proposed NASA in 1976 Riccardo Giacconi and Harvey Tananbaum as a development of the observatory being launched at that time HEAO-2(Einstein). In 1992, due to reduced funding, the design of the observatory was significantly changed - 4 out of 12 planned X-ray mirrors and 2 out of 6 planned focal instruments were removed.

Takeoff weight AXAF/Chandra was 22,753 kg, which is the absolute record for the mass ever launched into space by space shuttles. The bulk of the complex "Chandra" was the rocket that made it possible to put the satellite into orbit, the apogee of which is about a third of the distance to the moon.

The station was designed for a period of operation equal to 5 years, but on September 4, 2001 NASA it was decided to extend the service life by 10 years, thanks to the outstanding results of the work.

6. Palm Deira - an artificial island in Dubai

The Palm Islands are an archipelago of artificial islands. Located in the United Arab Emirates, in the emirate of Dubai. The archipelago consists of three large islands, each having the shape of a palm tree:

• Palm Jumeirah,
• Palm Jebel Ali,
• Palm Deira.

Between the islands there are also artificial archipelagos "Mir" and "Universe" of small islands.

The Siduhe Bridge is a suspension bridge across the Siduhe River Valley in Hubei Province, China. The maximum height above ground level is 496 meters, making it the tallest bridge in the world. The bridge is part of the G50 highway connecting Shanghai and Chongqing. The bridge has 4 working lanes for traffic and 2 reserve lanes.

The Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, is a multifunctional sports complex created for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, located next to the swimming complex. This stadium, in addition to holding sports, hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games. The construction of the stadium began in December 2003 according to the project of the bureau Herzog and de Meuron . The opening of the stadium took place in March 2008.

The cost of building the stadium is estimated at 3.5 billion yuan, which is approximately 325 million euros.

9. Five-star hotel JW Marriott Marquis in Dubai

JW Marriott Marquis Dubai is a high-rise hotel complex in Dubai, UAE, currently, according to Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat , which is the tallest hotel in the world. It consists of two buildings 355 meters high.

Initially the company The Emirates Group planned to build only one 77-storey tower with a height of 350 meters. Construction was supposed to be completed in 2008. However, then the architecture of the building has undergone significant changes. A new design for the twin towers was approved in 2006. At first it was planned to build towers with a height of 395 meters, then changes were made to the project, and the planned height of the buildings decreased to 355 meters.

The opening of the hotel was timed to coincide with the visit of the delegation of the International Exhibition Bureau to Dubai: the UAE has applied to host the World Expo in 2020 in Dubai.

The cost of the project amounted to about 1.8 billion UAE dirhams (approximately $432 million).

The hotel complex includes 1608 rooms and 15 restaurants, as well as a business center, conference rooms, meeting rooms, a spa center and a shopping complex. In addition, on the 7th floor of one of the buildings there is a 32-meter bowl-pool with related infrastructure.

Kingda Ka- attraction, the highest and second fastest roller coaster in the world. Located in the park "Six Flags", New Jersey, USA.

The trolley with the help of a hydraulic mechanism accelerates to 206 km / h in 3.5 seconds. The train rises to the top of the tower, reaching a height of 139 meters, and then rolls down under its own weight.

May Day Stadium- a stadium located in Pyongyang (DPRK). It is the largest stadium in the world in terms of capacity, designed for 150,000 spectators, built in 1989 to host the XIII Festival of Youth and Students. Design feature May Day Stadium are sixteen arches forming a ring, because of this, the stadium is shaped like a magnolia flower. The arena is used for home matches of the DPRK national team, but its main purpose is the massive Arirang festival.

12. Akashi Kaikyo - the longest suspension bridge

Akashi-Kaikyo is a suspension bridge in Japan that crosses the Akashi Strait and connects the city of Kobe on the island of Honshu with the city of Awaji on the island of Awaji. It is part of one of the three highways connecting Honshu and Shikoku.

The bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the world: its total length is 3911 m, the central span is 1991 m long, and the side spans are 960 m each. The height of the pylons is 298 m.

The length of the main span was originally planned to be 1990 m, but it increased by one meter after the Kobe earthquake on January 17, 1995.

The structure of the bridge has a system of double-hinged stiffening beams that can withstand wind speeds up to 80 m/s, earthquakes with a magnitude of up to 8.5 and withstand strong sea currents. To reduce the loads acting on the bridge, there is also a system of pendulums operating at the resonant frequency of the bridge structure.

13. Mid - the largest reservoir in the US

Mid (eng. Lake Mead) is the largest reservoir in the United States. It is located on the Colorado River 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, on the border between Nevada and Arizona. Formed during the construction of the Hoover Dam, it extends 110 miles (180 km) beyond the dam. The total volume of water is 35 km3. The water stored in the reservoir is transported by aqueducts to communities in southern California and Nevada.

14. Project Genesis - the world's largest cruise ship

Company Luxury Vessel Royal Caribbean entitled "Project Genesis" is the largest cruise ship the world has ever known and is worth $1.24 billion.

The liner is 1180 feet long (16 decks) and is capable of accommodating 5400 passengers in 2700 cabins. The finished ship houses Central Park (just like one of the parks in New York), luxury hotels, restaurants 150 Central Park, Central Park Cafe, Giovanni's Table, bars Canopy Bar, Rising Tide, wine cellar Vintages, public places, picnic areas. In Central Park, similar to the city center, guests will be provided with balcony rooms - great places for social meetings throughout the day and night. The liner also has six other sections.

The Hangzhou Bay Bridge, or the Great Transoceanic Hangzhou Bay Bridge, is a cable-stayed bridge in the Hangzhou Bay off the east coast of China. Connects the cities of Shanghai and Ningbo (Zhejiang Province) and is the longest transoceanic bridge in the world.

Opened to traffic on May 1, 2008, although it was assumed that the bridge would not be completed until Expo 2010. Construction of the bridge began on June 8, 2003 and continued until 2007, after which closed testing of the bridge was carried out for several months.

The length of the bridge is about 36 km, traffic is carried out in three lanes in each direction. This is the third longest bridge across water spaces. Estimated speed on the bridge is 100 km/h, service life is more than 100 years. The total cost of investment in construction was 11.8 billion yuan (about 1.4 billion US dollars in December 2004). 35% of the investments were made by private enterprises in Ningbo, who are extremely interested in quick access to the financial center and the country's largest port in Shanghai. Another 59% are loans provided by China's central and regional banks.

Eurotunnel, tunnel under the English Channel (French tunnel sous la Manche, English Channel Tunnel, also sometimes just Euro Tunnel) is a double-track railway tunnel, about 51 km long, of which 39 km is under the English Channel. Connects continental Europe with the UK by rail. Thanks to the tunnel, it became possible to visit London from Paris in just 2 hours and 15 minutes; in the tunnel itself, the trains are from 20 to 35 minutes. It was solemnly opened on May 6, 1994.

The Singapore Flyer is a giant Ferris wheel located in Singapore built between 2005-2008. It reaches the height of a 55-story building, with a total height of 165 m (541 ft), making it the tallest Ferris wheel in the world, 5 m (16 ft) taller than the Nanchang Star and 30 m (98 ft). ) is taller than the London Eye.

Each of the 28 air-conditioned capsules can accommodate 28 passengers. A full rotation of the wheel takes about 30 minutes. The wheel originally rotated in a counter-clockwise direction as viewed from the Maritime Center, but its direction of rotation was changed on August 4, 2008 on the advice of feng shui experts.

Pan-STARRS(English) Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System Panoramic and Quick Response Telescope System) is an implementable automatic system of 4 telescopes that will see objects a hundred times less bright (up to 24th magnitude) than those available to today's automatic surveys. This will make it possible to detect 99% of asteroids crossing the Earth's orbit with a diameter of more than 300 m.

Telescope system Pan-STARRS will be located on top of the Mauna Kea volcano on the island of Hawaii. She will have access to 3/4 of the entire sky, or 30,000 square degrees. The entire available area of ​​the sky will be scanned three times a month. A single frame will have a shutter speed of 30 seconds. The same region of the sky will be repeatedly taken at intervals of several tens of minutes. After each scan, several terabytes of data will be obtained for analysis: from the variety of astronomical objects, those that move or change their brightness will be selected.

telescopes Pan-STARRS will have a large viewing angle (large field of view) - 7 square degrees (a square with a side of 2.6 °), which will allow you to cover the sky with a relatively small number of images.

The project includes four telescopes with mirrors 1.8 m in diameter each and 1.4 gigapixel CCD cameras.

This program is the University of Hawaii's most important telescopic project in the past 30 years.

19. Tianhe-2 (MilkyWay-2) - the most powerful computer in the world

Tianhe-2(literally: "Milky Way-2") is a supercomputer designed Defense Science and Technology University People's Liberation Army of the People's Republic of China and Inspur .

While the supercomputer is in Defense Science and Technology University PLA, but later it will be installed in National supercomputer center in Guangzhou. At first it was planned to finish the project in 2015, but it was launched ahead of schedule. Expected that Tianhe-2 will be finalized by the end of 2013.

Tianhe-2 consists of 16 thousand nodes, each of which includes 2 processors Intel Xeon E5-2692 on architecture Ivy Bridge with 12 cores each (frequency 2.2 GHz) and 3 dedicated coprocessors Intel Xeon Phi 31S1P(on architecture Intel MIC, 57 cores per accelerator, frequency 1.1 GHz, passive cooling). Each node has 64 GB DDR3 ECC memory (16 modules) and an additional 8 GB GDDR5 each Xeon Phi(total 88 GB). In total, the total number of computing cores reaches 3.12 million (384 thousand Ivy Bridge and 2736 thousand Xeon Phi), which is the largest public installation of such processors.

20. Alfonso del Mar - the largest artificial reservoir in the world

Private hotel swimming pool San Alfonso del Mar in Chile is 1 km long and covers an area of ​​8 hectares. The maximum depth is 35 m. It contains 250,000,000 liters of water, which is filtered and pumped from the Pacific Ocean.

Publication prepared by staff CompMechLab® based on site materials

January 15, 1943 started work Pentagon- the famous headquarters of the US Department of Defense, which has become the most largest office building in the world. Today we will talk about several objects from different countries, each of which is considered the largest in its industry on Earth. It will be about residential and factory buildings, shopping centers, airports, stadiums and other world record holders.

Talented engineers from year to year develop ambitious projects designed to make the life of the Earth's population more comfortable and safer. Billions of dollars are being spent building power plants, bridges, tunnels and even artificial islands.
Today we invite you to take a look at Top 10 most expensive buildings in the world. Naturally, we included only modern objects in the top ten, since it is not worth even trying to estimate the cost of such structures as the Great Wall of China, the Kremlin and the Pyramids of Giza.

10 Qingdao Bay Bridge, China ($6 billion)

This bridge has already been "marked" in ours. The characteristics of this grand structure are as follows: a length of 42 km and six traffic lanes. More than 30,000 vehicles cross the bridge every day.

9 Large Hadron Collider, Switzerland ($6 billion)

The charged particle accelerator was designed and built by specialists from 3 dozen countries. The construction has impressive dimensions - the length of the main ring of the famous accelerator is 26 thousand meters. By the way, the name collider comes from the English verb "collide", which means "to collide". After all, particle beams are accelerated inside the collider in opposite directions and collide at designated points.

8. Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline (TAN), USA ($8 billion)

The 1288 km oil pipeline crosses the state of Alaska from north to south. TAN is one of the world's largest oil pipelines and is owned by Alyeska Pipeline Service Company. The construction includes the pipeline itself, 12 pumping stations and a terminal in the American city of Valdez.

7 Palm Jumeirah Artificial Island, UAE ($14 billion)

The construction of the island in the form of a palm tree was carried out from 2001 to 2006. The dimensions of the artificial "Palm" are 5x5 km, and the area is more than 800 football fields. The grandiose creation of human hands can be seen from Earth's orbit with the naked eye. Today, the artificial island has residential areas, private villas, hotels and a water park.

6. Great Boston Tunnel, USA ($14.8 billion)

The most expensive structure in US history is an 8-lane highway, which was built by 5,000 workers. By the way, mobile communication does not work in the tunnel, since the epoxy resin, with which the walls are connected, may not withstand the additional weight of the base stations.

5. Three Gorges Hydroelectric Plant, China ($25 billion)

The world's largest operating power plant is located on the Yangtze River near the city of Sandouping. In order to make room for a huge reservoir created at the hydroelectric dam, the Chinese government resettled 1.3 million people in other parts of the country.

4. Itaipu Hydroelectric Plant, Brazil/Paraguay ($27 billion)

The huge hydroelectric power plant on the Parana River is the world leader in generating electricity per year. The power plant supplies more than 20% of Brazil's electricity needs and about half of Paraguay's. By the way, in 2009, due to the accident at Itaipu, more than 50 million Brazilians and almost the entire population of Paraguay remained without electricity for a day.

3. Al Maktoum International Airport, UAE ($33 billion)

Dubai Air Gateway tops our recently published . Currently, the airport is only partially functional, but after the completion of all work, this huge complex will pass almost 160 million passengers a year.

2. Chek Lap Kok Airport, Hong Kong ($20 billion)

Most of this airport is located on an artificial island, which explains the rather high cost of construction. Three airport terminals handle almost 50 million passengers and 4 million tons of cargo a year.

1 International Space Station ($157 billion)

15 countries of the world took part in the creation of the ISS. The preliminary design of the station was approved in 1995, and in November 1998 Russia launched its first element into orbit - the Zarya functional cargo block. To date, the ISS is the most expensive structure created by mankind in modern history.